es, love her, love her, love her!"

Though this visit took him so near the old forge, Pip did not go to see
Joe and Biddy. Indeed, only once in the months that followed did he see
them--when he went to attend the funeral of Mrs. Joe.

After that he had no need to leave the city to see Estella, for Miss
Havisham soon sent her to live in London. From there she required her to
write letters weekly, telling how many men she had fascinated and made
wretched. Pip saw her constantly and tortured himself with the growing
belief that Miss Havisham's training (the purpose of which he had begun
to guess) was really succeeding in crushing her heart, and was leaving
her with no power to love any one.

Thus, between hope and despair, Pip became of age. Mr. Jaggers now told
him that a certain large sum was his to spend each year. He was deeply
in debt and a great part of his first year's portion went to pay his
creditors. But with the remainder he did a good and unselfish deed: he
bought secretly a share in a good business for Herbert, so that his
comrade became a partner in it.

A great blow was now to fall upon Pip without warning--something that
changed the whole course of his life. One rainy night, when Herbert was
away from London, as he sat alone in their rooms, a heavy step stumbled
up the stair and a man entered. He was coarse and rough-looking and
tanned with exposure, with a furrowed bald head, tufted at the sides
with gray hair.

There was something strangely familiar to Pip in his face, but at first
he did not recognize him. Seeing this, the stranger threw down his hat,
twisted a handkerchief around his head, took a file from his pocket and
walked across the room with a curious shivering gait that brought back
to Pip's mind, like a lightning flash, the scene in the churchyard so
many years ago, when he had sat perched on a tombstone looking in
terror at that same man's face. And he knew all at once that the man was
the escaped convict of that day!

It was a strange tale the new-comer told then, one that Pip's heart sank
to hear. Miss Havisham had not been his benefactor after all. The one
whose money had educated him, had set him there in London to live the
life of a gentleman, the one to whom he was indebted for every penny he
owned, was Abel Magwitch, a criminal--the convict for whom he had once
stolen food years before!

Pip sank into a chair trembling as Magwitch, in a hoarse voice, told his
story. He told how